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Leadership and Excellence in Schooling

Leadership andExcellence inSchoolingExcellent schools needfreedom within J. SERGIOVANNIIt is in and through symbols that man,consciously or unconsciously, lives, worksand has his Carlvles your school a good school? WhenJoan Lipsitz posed this question of the excellent middleschools she studied, she found that thevhad difficulty defining what made theirschools special or what the dimensionsof Excellence in Schooling were. "Youwill have to come and see my school,"was the typical response. IThomas 1. Sergiovanni is Professor andChairperson, Department of Adminis-tration, Higher and Continuing Educa-tion, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. This article is based on TheLillian Radford Lecture, "The Forces ofLeadership," given at Trinity University,San Antonio, Texas, November 14, is readily recognized inour ordinary experiences. It is difficultto put our finger on what makes aparticular athletic or artistic perform-ance excellent.

Leadership and Excellence in Schooling Excellent schools need freedom within boundaries. THOMAS J. SERGIOVANNI It is in and through symbols that man,

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Transcription of Leadership and Excellence in Schooling

1 Leadership andExcellence inSchoolingExcellent schools needfreedom within J. SERGIOVANNIIt is in and through symbols that man,consciously or unconsciously, lives, worksand has his Carlvles your school a good school? WhenJoan Lipsitz posed this question of the excellent middleschools she studied, she found that thevhad difficulty defining what made theirschools special or what the dimensionsof Excellence in Schooling were. "Youwill have to come and see my school,"was the typical response. IThomas 1. Sergiovanni is Professor andChairperson, Department of Adminis-tration, Higher and Continuing Educa-tion, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. This article is based on TheLillian Radford Lecture, "The Forces ofLeadership," given at Trinity University,San Antonio, Texas, November 14, is readily recognized inour ordinary experiences. It is difficultto put our finger on what makes aparticular athletic or artistic perform-ance excellent.

2 But we know excellencewhen we see it. The earmarks of anexcellent piano performance may befound not in the notes played but in thepauses between them. Clearly, excel-lence is multidimensional, , by contrast, is markedby mastery of certain predetermined,essential fundamentals. The piano stu-dent achieves mastery and thus is able toplay the notes flawlessly and deliver aperformance recognized as , we know excellent schoolswhen we experience them, despite diffi-culties in definition. In excellentschools things "hang together"; a senseof purpose rallies people to a commoncause; work has meaning and life issignificant; teachers and students worktogether and with spirit; and accom-plishments are readily recognized. Tosay excellent schools have high moraleor have students who achieve high testscores or are schools that send morestudents to college misses the is all of these and , Not CompetenceShould we expect more from ourschools than the satisfaction of knowingthey're performing "up to standard" andthat students are competent performers?

3 Most surveys indicate that basic skilllearning and developing fundamentalacademic competence-the indicatorsof effectiveness common to the schooleffectiveness literature-are paramountgoals in the minds of most parents andteachers. But, pushed a bit further,parents and teachers provide a moreexpansive view of Excellence , whichincludes developing a love of learning,critical thinking and problem-solving4 EDUcATIONAL LEADERSHIP4 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIPi~~~~~~~~ tnA; " f I~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~P-~i-I..1-l l1_* 7-skills, aesthetic appreciation, curiosityand creati ith, interpersonal compe-tence. and so )n. Parents want a com-plete education for their children. In-deed our societ% requires it. Our youngneed to become cultured, educated citi-zens able to participate filly in society,not just trained workers with limitedpotential for such differences exist among in-competent, competent, and excellentschools arid their leaders.

4 Schools man-aged by incompetent leaders simplydon't get the job done. Typically, suchschools are characterized by confusionand inefficiency in operation and mal-aise in human climate. Studentachievement is lower in such may not be giving a fair day'swork for a fair day's pay. Student absen-teeism, discipline, and violence mav bea problem Conflict may characterizeinterpersonal relationships among facul-ty or between faculty and mav feel isolated from theschool. Competent schools, by contrast,measure up to these and other standardsof effectiveness. They get the job donein a satisfactors manner. Excellentschools, however, exceed the expecta-tions necessary to be considered satisfac-tory. Students in such schools accom-plish far more and teachers work muchharder than can ordinarily be Forces and ExcellenceLeadership has several aspects, each ofwhich contributes uniquely to schoolcompetence and to school current focus in Leadership theoryand practice provides a limited view,dwelling excessively on some aspects ofleadership to the virtual exclusion ofothers.

5 Unfortunately, these neglectedaspects of Leadership are linked to excel-lence-a revelation now unfolding fromrecent research on school effectivenessand school of Leadership can be describedmetaphorically as forces available to ad-ministrators, supervisors, and teachersas they influence the events of school-ing. Force is the strength or energybrought to bear on a situation to start orstop motion or change. Leadershipforces can be thought of as the meansavailable to administrators, supervisors,and teachers to bring about or preservechanges needed to improve schoolingAt least fixe Leadership forces can heidentified:* Technical--derived from soundmanagement techniques* tluman--derived from harnessingavailable social and interpersonal re-sources* Educational-derived from expertknowledge about matters of educationand Schooling * Symbolic-derived from focusingthe attention of others on matters ofimportance to the school* Cultural-dcrivcd from building aunique school cultureThe first two forces have dominatedthe Leadership literature in recent yearsand loom large in training programsoffered through ASCI)'s National Cur-riculum Study The technical leader assumes therole of "management engineer.

6 " By em-phasizing such concepts as planningand time managemient technologies,contingency Leadership theories, and or-ganizational structures, the leader pro-vides planning, organizing, coordinat-ing, arid scheduling to thie life of theschool An accomplished managementengineer is skilled at manipulating strat-egies and situations to ensure The human leader assumes the roleof "human engineer." By emphasizingsuch concepts as human relations, in-terpersonal competence, and instru-mental motivational technologies, sheor he provides support, encouragement,and growth opportunities to the school'shuman organization. The skilled engi-neer is adept at building and maintain-ing morale and using such processes asparticipatory decision The educational leader assumes therole of "clinical practitioner," bringingexpert professional knowledge and bear-ing as they relate to teaching effective-ness, educational program development,and clinical supervision.

7 The clinicalpractitioner is adept at diagnosing edu-cational problems; counseling teachers;providing for supervision, evaluation,and staff development; and developingcurriculum. One wonders how suchessential concerns of school leadership6 EDUCATIONAi. I ,I ADFRSHIPIL6 EDUCATIOtNAL , for so long. have been neglectedin the literature of educational an earlier era the educational as-pects of Leadership were center stage inthe literature of educational administra-tion and supervision Principals wereconsidered to bhe instructional leaders,and an emphasis on Schooling charac-terized unisersith training advances of management andsocial science theory in educational ad-ministration and supervsision soonbrought to center stage technical andhuman aspects. John Goodlad has beena persistent critic of the displacement ofeducational aspects of Leadership in fa-vor of technical and human.

8 He argues,"But to put these matters at the center,often for understandable reasons of sur-vival and expediencs .is to commit afundamental error which ultirnatelv,will hasc a negative impact on botheducation and one's own career Ourwork, for which we will be held acccoun-table, is to maintain, justif', and artic-ulate sound. comprehensive programs ofinstruction for children and youth."2He states further, "It is now time toput the right things at the center the right things have to do withassuring comprchensive. qualih' cduca-tional programs in each and ever'school under our jurisdiction. "The technical, human. and educa-tional forces of Leadership , brought to-gether in an effort to maintain or im-prove Schooling , provide the criticalmass needed for competent Schooling . Adeficit in anv one of the three upsets thiscritical mass, and less effective school-ing is likely to occur.

9 Recent studies ofexcellence in organizations suggest thatdespite the link between these threeaspects of Leadership and competence inschooling, their presence does not guar-antee Excellence . Excellent organiza-tions, schools among them, are charac-terized by other Leadership qualities;forces described here as symbolic The symbolic leader assumes therole of "chief" and by emphasizing selec-tive attention (the modeling of impor-tant goals and behaviors) signals to oth-ers what is of importance and the school; visiting classrooms;FEBRUARY 1984seeking out and visibly spending timewith students; downplaving manage-ment concerns in favor of educationalones; presiding over ceremonies, rituals,and other important occasions; and pro-viding a unified vision of the schoolthrough proper use of words and actionsare examples of leader activ ities associat-ed with this fourth forcecPurposing is of major concern to thesymbolic force.

10 Peter \'aill defines pur-posing as "that continuous stream ofactions by an organization's formal lead-ership \vhich has the effect of inducingclarits. consensus, and commitment re-garding the organization's basic pur-poses."' Students and teachers alikewant to know what is of value to theschool and its Leadership ; desire a senseof order and direction; and enjoy shar-ing this sense with others. They respondto these conditions with increased workmotivation and less concern to the svmbolic forceis the leader's behavioral style. Instead,what the leader stands for and commu-nicates to others is emphasized. Theobject of symbolic Leadership is the stir-ring of human consciousness, the inte-gration and enhancing of meaning, thearticulation of key cultural strands that"Importantdifferences existamongincompetent,competent, andexcellent Students inexcellent schoolsaccomplish farmore andteachers workmuch harderthan canordinarily beexpected.


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